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ARTHUR: Religion, Morality, and Conscience. Thesis: Religion is not necessary for morality, although the two can be related. What is Religion? - An answer, guidance, purpose. - Deterrent - Sense of identity, culture, safety, comfort. - Arthur:: beliefs in the supernatural powers that created and perhaps control nature, worship and prayer, and organizational structures and texts. What is Morality? - socially acceptable - matter of opinion - right and wrong - Arthur: a tool for evaluation to behaviour of others and ourselves, and a tool that elicits feelings of guilt at inappropriate actions. Starts with Thought Experiments where we could have a religious society that lacks a moral code and then a moral society that lacks religion. 3 ways Religions has been thought to be necessary for morality - 1) Religion is necessary for moral motivation Religion provides us with incentives and deterrents. PROBLEM: People have lots of motives, apart from religious ones. We worry about getting caught, or getting a bad reputation, or keeping up with the Joneses. - 2) Religion is necessary for Moral Guidance o We can only know the moral thing to do through religious teaching and revelation o PROBLEM: 1) There’s way too much to know. This leads to the 2nd problem. 2) Knowing what to do through revelation is problematic 2 kinds of Rev a) God’s words )God’s acts What counts then as revelation? Words or acts 3) How do we interpret the revelation? The bible (and arguably other religious texts) contain contradictory messages. How do I decide how to act? - 3) Without Religion/God there could be no morality. o Divine Command Theory An act (x) is morally good only because god says that x is morally good. o PROBLEM: Plato’s Euthyphro God says that an act is morally good because the act is in fact independently morally good. o Another Problem: What if God is arbitrary? o Ontological Claim: The existence of morality does not depend on the existence of religion.